Trelawney going bad?

[blpurdom at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 27196


> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., pigwidgeon37 at y... wrote:
> > Answering the question about what it would need to give us a 
> > really good surprise in OoP, somebody responded that it would be 
> > Trelawney going over to the Dark Side, and somebody else argued 
> > that she's too much of a detached, completely disinterested-in-
> > daily-reality character. [snip]

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., catherine at c... wrote: 
> I could see Professor Trelawney "going bad" though.  She seems to 
> take an inordinate amount of pleasure in predicting death and 
> mutilation for her students.  In fact, I'd go as far as to say that 
> she is positively sadistic about it.

This wouldn't be a surprise for me unless it did in fact happen in 
OotP, which IMO would be far too soon.  I think of Trelawney as a 
kind of seven-year-Quirrell, which is to say, it will probably take 
almost seven years for it to come out that her benign facade is a red 
herring.  She SEEMS to be both harmless (although annoying) and 
incompetent, but although Dumbledore says she only made one other 
correct prediction, I strongly suspect that that's the only one he 
knows about.  She probably reserves her "correct" predictions for the 
Dark Wizards, telling nonsense to people like Dumbledore and 
McGonagall, who then feel justified in thinking she's dotty.  We'll 
probably see more signs of her true colors in book 5 (if only we knew 
what they meant), but all will not be revealed yet...

If JKR went back on something she has said about the series in 
general, such as Draco Malfoy never being on Harry's side, now THAT 
would shock me.   

--Barb